Jagielka admits FA Cup pain after succesful op

Everton have declared Phil Jagielka's knee operation, to repair a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament, a success but the defender is still coming to terms with missing the FA Cup final.

The England centre-back crumbled to the floor in Everton's 2-1 defeat by Manchester City last weekend and admitted he "cried and cried and cried" when he realised the injury would rule him out for the rest of the season including the Wembley final against Chelsea.

But the 26 year-old has received the support of his team-mates, in particular Mikel Arteta who suffered a similar injury earlier in the season which has also ended his campaign.

"Mikel rang me and it was nice to speak to him," Jagielka said. "He was there at Wembley for our semi-final win over Manchester United to see us get through, but he was obviously gutted that he wouldn't be there in the team for the final.

"Now I'm in the same boat, so it's nice that I've got someone going through a similar situation. He is obviously a month or two ahead of me (with his rehabilitation) so he can help me and guide me along the way when I'm feeling down."

He added: "Mikel would probably have been our player of the year if he had
kept on playing the way he was.

"He was a massive part of our team and we did struggle for a couple of weeks
to find a way of playing without him.

"We have learnt to deal with it and hopefully they will learn to play without
me now."

Everton's head physio Mick Rathbone travelled to the capital with Jagielka and observed the operation.

He said: "It went really, really well. The surgeon is absolutely delighted
with it and the player's rehab can start more or less straight away.

"We never put a timescale on this type of thing but we're looking forward to
having him back as soon as possible next season."